Local search

What is SEO?

SEO is the practice of improving how a website appears in unpaid search results, through its content, its technical construction and the links pointing at it.

Also known as: Search engine optimization

How we do local search Get a free assessment

SEO is the practice of improving how a website appears in unpaid search results, through its content, its technical construction and the links pointing at it.

Search engine optimization covers everything done to earn traffic from search results you do not pay for. Conventionally it is split into three areas: on-page work, meaning the content and how it is structured; technical work, meaning speed, crawlability, mobile behavior and markup; and off-page work, meaning the links and mentions that establish authority.

For a local business, general SEO and local SEO are related but not the same. Local search results are ranked with proximity and business-information factors that do not apply to ordinary web results, and a business can rank well in one and poorly in the other. Most local businesses get more from local SEO than from conventional SEO, and both benefit from a fast, well-built site.

It is a slow channel by nature. Meaningful movement generally takes three to six months and often longer in a competitive category, which is the main practical difference between SEO and advertising as ways of buying attention.

Why it matters

Organic and local search traffic does not stop when you stop paying, which makes it the only marketing channel that compounds. The cost is that it takes months to build and cannot be switched on when you need work next week.

The common mistake

Expecting results on an advertising timescale. Businesses that judge SEO at thirty days almost always cancel it just before the period when it would have started working.

Where this fits

SEO is part of local search

Understanding the term is the easy half. The service page describes what the work actually involves, and the free assessment says whether it is the thing your business should be spending on next — which is frequently a different question.

Local Search Get a growth proposal

Related terms

Things that come up alongside it

Local SEOLocal SEO is the work of making a business appear in search results for people searching nearby — chiefly in the map results, which are ranked differently from ordinary web results.Read

SERPA SERP is a search engine results page — everything a search engine shows in response to a query, including ads, the map pack, featured answers and the ordinary blue links.Read

BacklinkA backlink is a link from another website to yours, and search engines treat it as a signal that your site is worth referring to.Read

Schema markupSchema markup is code added to a web page that describes its content to search engines in a standard machine-readable format.Read

Every term in the glossary

Request a Free Consultation with a Marketing Expert

A strategist reviews how your business shows up in search today — your listings, your reviews and your site — then walks you through what is working, what is not, and what to fix first.

No cost, no obligation
Custom to your industry
Delivered by a real strategist